There’s an article at The Denver Post titled “Sorry, Mr. Joel Embiid. But we all know Nikola Jokic is the real MVP of everyday Budweiser-drinking peeps.”

It’s behind a paywall, but I pulled a super-secret trick to circumnavigate the roadblock and discovered that the column is absolutely terrible. It seems to be centered on this thought that Jokic is a big normal goofball and someone fans can relate to.

Kiszla opens with these paragraphs:

Har har! Jokic was more concerned about the weather! What a quip! What a regular guy he is!

Kiszla goes on to explain that Jokic cares more about mucking out his horse stables and getting hugs from his daughters than the MVP race. He then writes a few paragraphs about how good Jokic has been in the Phoenix series and talks about how his aggression in game two was the catalyst for a 39-point, 16-rebound performance.

Then it continues with a section that attempts to again bring us back to the “everyman” thing by explaining that Joker wears silly boxers:

Now the real question is what kind of Budweisers these “everyday” people are drinking. Are they drinking the traditional Buds, or the Dylan Mulvaney woke Bud Lights that Kid Rock shot up with a machine gun? That’s important to discern! (mostly sarcasm)

And furthermore, if Jokic is the MVP of “everyday peeps,” then Embiid is what? The MVP of the caviar and wine peeps? Fancy cars and clubs? If the author knew anything about Embiid, he’d realize that he’s describing both Joel and Joker at the same time. Embiid doesn’t live some extravagant life style. He plays video games and takes care of his son. He drinks Shirley Temples. He’s not rolling around with Kardashians or hitting up Club Risque after the games. Embiid is the most regular person on the planet, so I’m not exactly sure what point Kiszla is trying to make. If Joel was some snooty and insufferable dude from the upper crust, this article would have worked, but Embiid has always been a low-key guy off the floor and maybe non-Sixers fans aren’t aware of that. Maybe they just see the occasional Degeneration X-type of thing and think it’s a snapshot of Embiid the person.

Anyway, horrendous column, lame headline, etc. Not a “dog whistle” though, because the Budweiser shit was just a reference to the boxers Joker was wearing. It’s not some kind of larger coded commentary about white people, just a pointless article.

EDIT – looks like this guy was once caught going through a player’s locker